Since ancient times, it has been believed that the worship of Shiva will obtain for his devotees, happiness in this world and salvation in the next. Gombhira is essentially a socio-religious festival that is celebrated in worship of Shiva with a view to attaining particular blessings, at the end of the Bengali year. As part of the ceremonies, the devotees wear masks in the hope of pleasing and obtaining the grace of the god. The festival originated in Malda district but survives elsewhere in structurally similar forms but under different guises – as Gomeera in Jalpaiguri, as Shiva (Shib-er) Gajon or Dharma (Dharm-er) Gajon in the districts across southern Bengal and the western banks of the Bhagirathi, and as Neel-er Gajon in Bangladesh.

With changing popular tastes however, the traditional Gombhira festival has become a thing of the past, celebrated in only a few places in Malda. However, for some time now, the term Gombhira has become synonymous with Pala Gombhira or Gombhira Pala, the most popular component of the festivities. The Pala Gombhira is a dramatized musical sketch, combining song, dance and satire and is a dying folk art form.

Since ancient times, it has been believed that the worship of Shiva will obtain for his devotees, happiness in this world and salvation in the next. Gombhira is essentially a socio-religious festival that is celebrated in worship of Shiva with a view to attaining particular blessings, at the end of the Bengali year. As part of the ceremonies, the devotees wear masks in the hope of pleasing and obtaining the grace of the god. The festival originated in Malda district but survives elsewhere in structurally similar forms but under different guises – as Gomeera in Jalpaiguri, as Shiva (Shib-er) Gajon or Dharma (Dharm-er) Gajon in the districts across southern Bengal and the western banks of the Bhagirathi, and as Neel-er Gajon in Bangladesh.

With changing popular tastes however, the traditional Gombhira festival has become a thing of the past, celebrated in only a few places in Malda. However, for some time now, the term Gombhira has become synonymous with Pala Gombhira or Gombhira Pala, the most popular component of the festivities. The Pala Gombhira is a dramatized musical sketch, combining song, dance and satire and is a dying folk art form.

It is generally agreed that the name Gombhira stems from the ancient (and still prevalent) term Gombhir (Gambhir) - a name for a communal space of worship. However, Gombhir is another name for Shiva which is still in use in certain pockets of Bengal. It is also a name for the lotus flower which has traditionally been used to decorate the Gombhir.

The roots of this festival go deep into the past and can be traced back to the primitive animistic festivals in honor of the sun god, fire god and various other gods in the Rigvedic era. Harvest time festivities were held to propitiate these gods with feasts, dance and music. With the gradual assimilation of the settler civilization of the Vedic Aryans, these abstract rituals gradually evolved into more complex festivities: the god of fire, Agni and his progeny began to be worshipped as different forms of the fire god and sacrifices too began to be celebrated with great pomp. Before long, wives too were created for the fire gods. Shivagni, who was devoted to the worship of Shakti (divine energy personified), was also worshipped at these sacrifices and before him, beasts were sacrificed and thus this fire came to be regarded as a form of destructive energy. In the post Vedic age, abstraction gave way to tangibility when the idolized and coupled divine form of Shiva and Shakti/Parvati together became the object of the Gombhira festivities. However, the Shiva of these times was not the Shivagni of the earlier age.

With the advent of Buddhism, the festival also acquired Buddhist overtones and assimilated the worship of the idolized Mahayana Buddha. In course of time, it became customary to celebrate these festivals by putting on the guises of Hindu deities. Xuanzang’s (Hiuen Tsang) account of the extravagant Buddhist festivities he witnessed in seventh century CE Pataliputra (modern Patna) during the reign of Harshavardhana tells us how the king himself put on the mask of Indra as he took part in these processional festivities while Kumaradeva of Pragjyotish dressed himself up as Brahma. Eventually, the Buddhists replaced the Hindu Shiva and Parvati with Bodhisattva Manjushri and his personified energy or wife, Arya Tara, with Dharma Thakur being regarded as the Adi Buddha by some. In Malda district, the festival started being celebrated as the Gombhira of Adya (the first goddess, the primordial energy, later referred to as Chandi).

With the later Hindu revivalism during the Pala-Sena period and the systemic marginalization of Buddhist culture, there was a gradual assimilation of the Vedic Shiva and the idolized Mahayana Buddha into a singular figure of worship for festive purposes. The female Adya (Arya) /Chandi figure transformed itself into the Hindu Parvati and her consort Shiva came to replace the role of Dharma. Thus in course of time, the Gajon/Gombhira form that crystallized around the Adi-Buddha/Dharma figure of the Mahayana ritual melded with the Hindu Shiva-Shakti duality. Even today, songs and dances in all forms of Gombhira and Gajon inevitably address Chandi as much as Shiva, though other deities that make guest-appearances vary from one local context to another.

In the aftermath of Vaishnavite and Islamic influence, Dharmer Gajon became even further marginalized and survives mainly in pockets of Rarh Bengal today. But the Shaivite form grew from strength to strength by focusing more and more on its sociopolitical aspirations whereby the ritual figure of worship has been transformed into a dramatic figure betokening leadership and collective responsibility – a leader among equals who share the troubles and trials of the common peoples’ daily lives and who can be addressed (or even confronted) along those terms – as the “old man Shiva” of Malda or the village-elder like Nana (grandfather, an allegoric reference to Shiva) of Islamic Bangladesh where idolatry is frowned upon.

While preserving much of its animistic and ritual roots, the festival has evolved into an elaborate communal dramatic structure that addresses a wide spectrum of socio-economic and even political issues in context of the contemporary concerns of the local living experience. Even a hundred years back, each village in Malda had its own gambhir or makeshift temple and held their own individual festivals coordinated by a host of elected elders or Mondols who then elected a coordinating body for the running of the public Gombhira festivals. The spirit of collective social responsibility and its annual re-assertion through this festival appears to be one of the fundamental legacies of this traditional cultural form. This is as evident in the history of the dramatic content of the form which involves the recounting of the year’s socioeconomic activities as well as in the sketches addressing the year’s issues that may have transgressed the collective sense of morality and which were resolved through the ritual public shaming achieved by the Gombhira songs that were sung.

Traditionally, the festival began four days before the Bengali New Year (celebrated on the first day of the month of Baishakh - mid April) and culminated on the passing year’s final night (last day of the month of Chaitra) – a routine that is still maintained for the Gomeera form in Jalpaiguri but has gradually grown lax everywhere else. In Malda and Dinajpur these days, the festival commences on the closing days of Chaitra and can continue into the first week of Baishakh, though attendant festivities may carry on even after the four-day ritualized festival is over. However, both the schedule and the rituals of the Gombhira festival show a large degree of local variation.

The first day of the festival is known as the Ghot-bhora and is marked by the single introductory ritual of collecting water from a nearby river or pond in an earthen or metal vessel that is then brought back and set up in the gambhir where the ensuing days’ rituals shall follow. The next day is called the Chhoto Tamasha (Smaller Festivities or Amusements) and is primarily involved with the establishment and worship of the composite idol(s) of Shiva and Parvati in the daytime. The evening sees the collective singing of Vandana-gaan or salutation songs composed by the village poets and led by the chief devotee. The Gombhira hymns differed from village to village, but the underlying idea remained the same.

The third day is the day of the Boro Tamasha or the Greater Amusements, which starts off with fasting and the customary worship of Hara(Shiva)-Parvati by devotees. In the afternoon, the devotees take out ritual carnivalesque processions from one Gombhira temple to another and from village to village, all to the accompaniment of masked dances and caricatures, dressed as ghosts, goblins, tribals, devotees of Rama and various other disguises. Some even have hooks pierced to their chests. In the evening, a sort of mask-play, Hanuman (the Hindu monkey god) Mukha is held, following which the devotees or bhaktas march out in a body, dancing to the music of drums (dhaak) to a nearby tank. Many participate in specific rituals of self torture that are not too common nowadays. As with the Neel-worshippers of Bangladesh, devotees would tie up their torsos with thorny branches before ritually cleansing themselves in a nearby pond. They would then surrender the branches in the temple to be blessed by the priests and finally lay the branches down on the ground in front of the temple and roll themselves over the branches in a token of submission to the deity.

It is at night that the masked dances, accompanied by drums and cymbals (kaanshi) begin, interspersed with satiric musical sketches addressing contemporary issues. These caricatures or Shonger Gaan which have not survived well into the present, would be sung by suitably dressed individuals or a chorus. The masked dances or Mukha Naach is an ancient tradition that survives to this day. This Gombhira dance is a solo dance.

The masks (mukhas) are remarkable examples of a tradition of folk sculpture in wood and clay that has been practiced and perfected over the ages into a complex form. Although the types of mukhas that have been most popular have changed over time with changes in cultural, religious and political traditions, some of the masked characters still in use today have a remarkably long history of cultural currency. The masks portray either mythical characters or figures of local wildlife including birds and beasts, and often a collation of the two as exemplified by one of the oldest and most well-known mukha, the Hanuman Mukha. Expectedly, the religious Mukhas involving Shiva-Parvati or Rama-Lakshman, Chamunda, Kali and Kartik have survived over time. But equally popular and well-known are the Rakshasa (demon) Mukha, the Mayur (peacock) Mukha and the Poree (fairy) Mukha. The traditional Narsinghee Mukha (Narsinghee being another figure of Chandi, thus scripturally associated to the worship of Dharma/Shiva) that used to be a feature of the old Gombhira has been transformed into the well-known Narasimha Mukha of today (where Narasimha is an avatar of Vishnu). Traditionally, these masks are preserved for use year after year. Malda still has old masks that are close to five hundred years old. But of late, papier-mâché masks of lesser durability but greater ease of use, have become popular as well.

Before the dawn of the fourth day, known as Aharaa, would begin the Mashan Naach. Tantric influence on this ritual, which survives to this day at some parts of Old Malda, is evident. Mashan means crematorium and the mask worn by the devotee playing the goddess Kali in her terrifying, destructive aspect is grotesque. Leading the dance, she strikes terror into the hearts of the spectators with her dress and her frenzied dance. The dancers are appeased only after the priest places a garland of flowers and the smoke of burnt incense before them. This dance is followed by the customary worship in the temple and a subsequent feast that used to be thrown for Brahmins and the young unmarried girls of the village, though this is scarcely seen today. The name Aharaa however derives from this specific tradition of the feast. Indeed, many of the traditions involved with this day have barely made it into the present and is in danger of fading away with time.

A significant collective ritual that still survives to this day in some parts of Malda is the morning practice of Shiber Chaash or the ‘cultivation by Shiva’. This is a ritual drama where the devotees gather in the temple before the Aharaa puja and, with the permission of the Mondol, begin to enact the entire year’s cycle of agricultural activities starting with the tilling of the land with bulls and the sowing of the seeds to the final reaping of the harvest. The playacting comes to a close with the Mondol demanding to know what the year’s produce would be. The prospect of the year’s cultivation would be determined by the answer given.

The evening of the fourth day sees the commencement of the Bolai Gaan or Bolbahi – a series of musical sketches initiated by a Vandana and closed off by an annual accounting of events of the past year. In contrast to the sensitive and serious content of the Bolbahi, series of lighter slapstick dramatic sketches and humorous morality plays are performed thereafter and go by the name of Alkap. The fourth day of Aharaa is sometimes followed by a fifth day of rituals including a Charak puja in some parts, with further continuation of the previous days’ festivities.

The Bolai or Bolbahi form is basically a musical sketch structured as communal drama. There are no masks used here. In parts of Malda like Bamongola and Habibpur, the term is used to refer to songs describing public scandals (kissa, keccha or kutsha). Traditionally, this musical sketch, incorporating song, dance and satire, used to be written about specific events or deeds within the past year that have outraged communal morality and the sketch itself used to provide a surrogate collective catharsis for the community against the trauma induced by such transgression. The songs could thus address anything from a popular scandal or political outrage to economic hardship or the past year’s drought or floods or any issue that would be contemporary and relevant for that year’s audience.

The subject matter of these Bolbahi songs would therefore be collectively pre-defined and was called the mudda. After the mudda was decided for the year, the songwriting was commissioned to established village Bolbahi song-writers. It is this traditional Bolbahi which survives as Gombhira or Pala Gombhira today in contemporary Gombhira festivities.

A Bolbahi session or the Gombhira-pala has four distinct stages. Accompanied by musicians, it begins with Vandana where four lead characters, come up on stage and start a conversation that leads to the establishment of that year’s mudda. Failing to resolve the issue of their choice among themselves provides their cue to summon the Shiva figurehead, representing the feudal lord or today, the government. They then lay out their grievances to this ‘old man Shiva’ or Nana who eventually gets to depart only after promising a resolution to the problem-at-hand. The next stage is the Char-Yaari, meaning four friends, where the four characters, through witty humorous dialogue, ridicule and songs, address social problems or social issues pre-determined in the mudda. One of the four is usually an uchit bokta or a right-speaking person who serves the role of conscience. He is always dressed in a torn vest and covered with medallions. This is followed by what is called a Duet or a series of short sketches involving two characters that bring up different issues. This is followed by a final section called Report which is an annual accounting of the past year’s significant events and developments and is supposed to provide a resolution for the problems introduced at the start and look ahead to the coming year.

The correlation between the ritual purpose of the overall festival and the mudda of the Bolbahi pala has gradually gotten diluted over time. The issues of collective responsibility, sociopolitical discourses and other contemporary priorities have long overshadowed any religious or spiritual overtones in the content of these sketches. Thus the Shiva-figurehead that is the nominal subject of address in these songs is not the Shiva that is the divine figure being worshipped in the Gombhira temple or being seen as nominally presiding over the entire gamut of festive activities. The Shiva figure in Bolbahi songs is extremely humanized to the extent that he appears to be no better than another fellow-villager to the audience members, albeit one who occupies a position of authority and therefore one who can be generally blamed for their public failures. The mythological context of this Shiva figure is often referred to for narrative and poetic convenience, but his divine status is otherwise obliterated within this musical structure.

The sociopolitical contemporariness of the Bolbahi pala songs is the predominant reason why Gombhira as a form found wider recognition in the mainstream culture of eastern India during the early 20th century nationalist years. Many community leaders, social reformers and political visionaries found inspiration in the form of these songs and also found in them a useful vehicle for accessible social communication. For this very reason, academic and popular interest in Gombhira survived well after independence into the Seventies in the politically agitated West Bengal of those transformative years. It is this aspect that brought legitimacy and recognition for the famous Gombhira pala writers of the 20th century. like Sufi Master (Mohammed Sufi), Bishu Pandit, Motorbabu (Jogendronath Chowdhury), Habolbabu (Debnath Ray) and others.

Though Pala Gombhira continues to be performed at the few Gombhira festivals that still are celebrated, the satirical sketches are performed during the rest of the year as well. But the form is dying, with only a handful of artists in Malda. Most of the traditional performers are performers of other folk forms as well - Manosha songs for example. Being mainly cultivators and daily wage earners, they cannot afford to specialize. There are only a few composers of sketches today which include Proshanto Sheth and Amar Mondal. Gombhira sketches combine contemporary issues with traditional themes and the lifetime of a sketch is usually a few years. Newer elements are added and older ones dropped as circumstances change.

Through a recent initiative by the government, artists are being encouraged to use their art form to communicate to the masses on the importance of education, consumer rights and other social and developmental issues.